A Study in Death (Lady Darby Mystery, #4)

A Study in Death
by Anna Lee Huber
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780425277522
Series: A Lady Darby Mystery #4
Publication Date: July 7, 2015
Pages: 323
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

I started off confused; for some reason I had it in my head that this book was going to take place in London and centre around Lord Gage (Kiera’s soon to be father-in-law), so when the story opens in Edinburgh and Lord Gage was nowhere to be found it felt like I picked up the wrong book.

Once I got past that and settled into the story, I enjoyed it, although I had concerns the author was writing herself into a corner: Lord Gage does appear about a third of the way through and boy is he an ass. Certifiable, no redeeming qualities ass and he doesn’t like Kiera at all. This set-up felt like a trite attempt at creating a crise de cœur between Kiera and Gage at best, and at worst, a totally unrealistic set-up for Kiera to ‘win-over’ and redeem her future father-in-law. Either of these scenarios was going to disappoint me after the quality of the story-telling in the first three books.

I should have had more faith; Ms. Huber takes neither of these paths and instead makes the hero more heroic and Kiera’s future more realistic, if less HEA. Sometimes, you have to take the ass to get the prince.

As to the actual mystery – I liked it a lot! The author presented several viable suspects and an ingenious method of poison delivery, as well as quite a few red-herrings that didn’t look like red-herrings. I didn’t sort it out until just before Kiera did and it was someone I never gave a thought to suspecting. I love it when that happens!

I love this series and of the four published so far there hasn’t been a bad one yet. It’ll be a long year of waiting to see what happens next.

Silent on the Moor (Lady Julia Grey, #3)

Silent on the Moor
by Deanna Raybourn
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780778326144
Series: Lady Julia Grey #3
Publication Date: January 1, 2009
Pages: 492
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Publisher: Mira

Not as good as the first two, but only marginally less so, and really only because it took awhile before any of the plot really got moving. This made the book feel LONG.

Saying that, I don’t know if I’d actually go so far as to claim it would improve with heavy editing. Perhaps. But the bulk of the first half of the book does do a very good job of setting the atmosphere, which is bleak and oppressive (does anything cheerful EVER take place on the moors?) and something-is-definitely-not-right-here.

And boy howdy is something not right at Grimsgrave. Once the story got moving, so did my pulse rate. The conclusion of the plot left me feeling like I might never be clean again; the author manages to vividly convey a diabolical depravity without celebrating it or wallowing in it, making it possible for people like myself (with a low threshold for such things) to read it without screaming.

Less humor in this one, although the dry wit is still to be found. Lady Julia is really rather putting it all on the line in this book, and when Brisbane isn’t acting like an arrogant ass, he’s actually acting quite a bit more human, albeit oftentimes I wanted to tell him to get over himself. His ‘gift’ continues to be a burden that is avoided at all costs and never used; given the times and the cost, this actually makes sense. Julia’s sister Portia is here too and her life changes rather dramatically during the course of the book. Brother Valerius reappears but is mostly background.

The ending is all wrapped up rather neatly with a HEA for almost everyone. I enjoyed it thoroughly and I look forward to starting the next one (although I am taking a break from the series to avoid burnout).

Silent in the Sanctuary (Lady Julia Grey, #2)

Silent in the Sanctuary
by Deanna Raybourn
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780778324928
Series: Lady Julia Grey #2
Publication Date: December 26, 2007
Pages: 552
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Publisher: Mira

After the longest, driest reading month of my life it was wonderful to fall into this book and lose myself in the story. I had read Silent in the Grave before leaving for holiday back in May and enjoyed it so much I searched out and ordered the rest of the books in the series, but none of them arrived before I left, leaving me with a feeling of unmet anticipation. Luckily, the sense of anticipation prevailed upon my return. More fortunately, the story held up and didn’t disappoint.

Lady Julia, after recovering from events in the first book by spending 6 months in Italy with her brothers, is summoned home for Christmas by her father; ostensibly because one of those brothers married without permission. Of course that had nothing to do with why they were all summoned home, but it does get the story moving.

I loved Julia’s eccentric, dry-witted family from the moment I met them in Silent in the Grave, so I was thrilled this one took place in the bosom of the family asylum, so to speak. Almost all the key players from book 1 are here, including Brisbane of course, dragging behind him his own contribution to the story’s drama. The humor in these books is never central to the writing, but it’s subtly woven through the dialogue and often sneaks up on me. Lady Julia feels (to me, so take this with a grain of salt) appropriate to the time period while being just a little bit shocking, too. Brisbane is often an ass, but Julia get’s his goat often enough that I don’t hate him.

More than a couple of plots in this one, most of which don’t get sorted out until 2/3 of the way through and I think each was rather competently done – the murder itself included quite a twist that delightfully surprised me.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one and immediately started reading the 3rd book, Silent on the Moor.

A Crimson Warning (Lady Emily, #6)

A Crimson Warning
by Tasha Alexander
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780312661755
Series: Lady Emily Mystery #6
Publication Date: August 7, 2011
Pages: 352
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Publisher: Minotaur Books

Newly returned to her home in Mayfair, Lady Emily Hargreaves is looking forward to enjoying the delights of the season. The delights, that is, as defined by her own eccentricities—reading The Aeneid, waltzing with her dashing husband, and joining the Women's Liberal Federation in the early stages of its campaign to win the vote for women. But an audacious vandal disturbs the peace in the capital city, splashing red paint on the neat edifices of the homes of London's elite. This mark, impossible to hide, presages the revelation of scandalous secrets, driving the hapless victims into disgrace, despair and even death. Soon, all of London high society is living in fear of learning who will be the next target, and Lady Emily and her husband, Colin, favorite agent of the crown, must uncover the identity and reveal the motives of the twisted mind behind it all before another innocent life is lost.

SO much better than the last one. Emily has stopped wallowing and is almost the same character I grew fond of in the first two books. She’s still a bit more obedient than I’d like, but I have to remember this is the Victorian age and no wife would get away with telling her husband to pull his head out of his ass.

Jeremy and Ivy are back in this book too. Ivy doesn’t do much for me either way, but I do love Jeremy’s wit and silliness. The author inserts journal entries from Ivy throughout the chapters that honestly added nothing to the story for me. She did this in her last book, using Emily’s mother-in-law’s journal, and that worked as a way of getting to know the woman in a way we wouldn’t have realistically been able to by relying on the narrative. But here… meh.

The plot though… the plot was good. I thoroughly enjoyed this story line and found it extremely relevant given society’s re-discovered fondness for public shaming. The mystery behind who was behind it all was done well enough; I neither knew who the culprit was nor was I surprised when it was revealed. The motivation was rather Machiavellian in the end and I enjoyed it.

This one has restored my enjoyment in the series; there are assuredly better examples of its kind out there, but so far this series is holding its own just fine.

Dangerous to Know (Lady Emily, #5)

Dangerous to Know
by Tasha Alexander
Rating: ★★★
isbn: 9780312383794
Series: Lady Emily Mystery #5
Publication Date: January 1, 2010
Pages: 306
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Publisher: Minotaur Books

I liked this book the least of all 5 books so far. The series presents a heroine with modern ideas in Victorian times. She’s rich of course, smart, independent and has a husband who supports these scandalous ideas of equality. They investigate mysteries together, along with one or two friends they’ve made along the way. It’s been fun, mostly.

Until this one. This book would have been about 30% shorter and less irritating if someone had just given Emily a flog at the beginning of the book and told her to have at herself. Events in the previous book have given her a rude awakening about what equality might mean–rightly enough–but she positively wallowed throughout this book and didn’t begin to resemble the character I’d enjoyed previously. Colin too was something of an ass.

So, the story lumbered and dragged for me. I disliked pretty much everybody, and I was certain who the killer was. But then, towards the end, the last 25%, the story got exciting. I still pretty much disliked everyone, but events picked up pace dramatically and I was quite swept away in the excitement of it all. Add to that I was totally wrong about who the killer was (although I get points for proximity) and the book raised itself up to 3 stars instead of the two I had planned to give it.

Here’s hoping everyone pulls their sticks out in book 6.

Silent in the Grave (Lady Julia Grey, #1)

Silent in the Grave
by Deanna Raybourn
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780778324102
Series: Lady Julia Grey #1
Publication Date: March 1, 2007
Pages: 511
Publisher: Mira

I bought this book because I was quite enjoying Tasha Alexander’s historical mystery series and I’d heard from several corners that this series was even better. When I received my copy, I was rather taken aback by its size: 500+ pages presented a brick of a mystery and admittedly, it intimidated me enough that it had worked its way towards the bottom of my TBR.

Then, a couple of nights ago the book I was reading wasn’t working for me, and this book started shouting ‘read me!’ so loudly I could hear it down the hallway (not really) and I’m happy to say not only was it monumentally better and more interesting that the one I had been reading, but that the 500 pages fairly flew by.

I’m a little bit in love with the March family; they all sound mad as hatters. Perhaps that’s a strong way to put it, but they are all decidedly eccentric. Lady Julia’s subtle, dry humour had me smiling throughout and chuckling outright whenever she talked about The Ghoul (I’m not going to explain The Ghoul – I’ll just say it’s not supernatural – because explaining would ruin it, I think).

But parallel to this delicious humour is a much more confronting murder mystery that starts off very slowly (not boring) and gains momentum as the ending nears. Readers who are choosing historical mysteries because they tend to stick with sanitised world views are going to be really disappointed; this book delves into the less conventional and seedier sides of Victorian society.

I’ve already indicated my affection for Lady Julia and her family. The only other real main character is Nicholas Brisbane and I’m not quite sure what to think of him. He makes a good hero of the alpha sort, I suppose, and he’s certainly a ‘still-waters-run-deep’ character, but while I didn’t dislike him, the author never really showed me anything particularly likeable about him either. Tragic, yes, attractive, yes. Warmth and humour….notsomuch. Still, intriguing potential.

The murder mystery was good, although I had guessed the villain long before the denouement. The author did get me to flip suspects for a few brief pages, but ultimately I went back to my first guess. I don’t know if it was because of this, but the actual climatic scene felt oddly anti-climatic. Maybe rushed? I suspect there might have been a nuance or two I missed and a couple of small unanswered questions kept that scene from working for me.

Death Comes to London (Kurland St. Mary Mystery, #2)

Death Comes to London
by Catherine Lloyd
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780758287359
Series: Kurland St. Mary Mystery #2
Publication Date: November 25, 2014
Pages: 259
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Publisher: Kensington

With the reluctant blessings of their father, the rector of Kurland St. Mary, Lucy Harrington and her sister Anna leave home for a social season in London. At the same time, Lucy's special friend Major Robert Kurland is summoned to the city to accept a baronetcy for his wartime heroism.

Amidst the dizzying whirl of balls and formal dinners, the focus shifts from mixing and matchmaking to murder when the dowager Countess of Broughton, the mother of an old army friend of Robert, drops dead. When it's revealed she's been poisoned, Robert's former betrothed, Miss Chingford, is accused, and she in turn points a finger at Anna. To protect her sister, Lucy enlists Robert's aid in drawing out the true culprit.

But with suspects ranging from resentful rivals and embittered family members to the toast of the ton, it will take all their sleuthing skills to unmask the poisoner before more trouble is stirred up. . .

I chose this book to read right before going to sleep at night because it’s a Regency historical cozy and would be a more calming read than, say, a thriller or a paranormal ghost story.

This was also dumb, because I enjoyed the story enough that I didn’t want to close the book and I ended up staying up too late three nights in a row.

Ms. Lloyd created excellent characters: likeable and flawed. The clincher for me is not that they are flawed, but that there isn’t any spotlight on the flaws; they weren’t created to give the characters something to overcome, they just are what they are. Lucy is too headstrong and independent for most of the eligible men of London, and maybe a bit too old. Oh well, she is what she is and she’s fine with it. Robert is a grumpy ass in a lot of pain (war wound). He’s a good person, just really not subtle and he’s short-tempered. He apologises when he offends, but well, it’s the way he is. Anna comes closest to a trope: beautiful, naive, sweet-natured, but she shows not only the expected flashes of temper but also appealing moments of rational thinking and decisive action.

The mystery concerns the death of a dowager countess during a ball at Almack’s – she was universally loathed so the suspects are thick on the ground. The plotting is complex, well-thought out and until the very end there are just too many people who could have done the terrible deeds that begin with that old woman’s death.

There’s a romantic element between Lucy and Robert but it’s ethereal at best; I would have liked a little more forward momentum and less of Lucy jumping to unwarranted conclusions. (The end was what griped me the most – the rest was fine.)

A great read and it looks to be a great series – I’ll be waiting for book 3.

Tears of Pearl (Lady Emily, #4)

Tears of Pearl
by Tasha Alexander
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780312383701
Series: Lady Emily Mystery #4
Publication Date: January 1, 2009
Pages: 307
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Publisher: William Morrow

I was tempted to give another 3.5 stars to this book, but I think personal bias might be getting in the way on this one, so I’ll err on the side of optimism.

The whole of this book takes place in Constantinople, during Lady Emily’s honeymoon. They become embroiled in a murder investigation that involves the Sultan’s harem and the son of an Englishman.

I’m of two minds about the setting; I’ve never found sultans or harems romantic or intriguing or even interesting. But I’ve always been fascinated by the advanced learnings of the Arabian culture. So while I found the whole sultan/harem thing a giant yawn, I did enjoy the glimpses of beauty, culture and education – especially on the part of the Turkish women (although I was struggling to keep track of who belonged to which palace). The author writes a fair story: she doesn’t deny the harems are at their base a form of slavery, but she is quick to point out that the English system wasn’t a model of feminism either; I thought she did a very good job comparing each against the other.

The murder mystery itself was again diabolical, but this time I knew the killer from the start. The motivation was a complete mystery until it’s revealed to Lady Emily, so my sureness as to the villain didn’t detract from my investment in the story.

A Fatal Waltz (Lady Emily, #3)

A Fatal Waltz
by Tasha Alexander
Rating: ★★★½
isbn: 9780061174223
Series: Lady Emily Mystery #3
Publication Date: January 1, 2008
Pages: 296
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Publisher: William Morrow

I’ll admit, I read a short story the author posted online about Emily and Colin that takes place immediately after A Fatal Waltz, before I read this book. The short story was replete with spoilers, so I knew, in essence, how this book ended. I don’t mind spoilers and I’ve been known to seek them out, but in this instance, it might have backfired a little.

A Fatal Waltz stalled a bit for me about midway. This could be because of the spoiler-effect or it could be that the story just didn’t intrigue me enough to hold my attention. I’m not sure. Either way, I enjoyed the book; I looked forward to picking it up and I got a bit irritable when I was interrupted. It just didn’t flow as quickly as the first two did.

A character from A Poisoned Season is murdered in this book (good riddance – he was vile) and Ivy’s husband is arrested and thrown into Newgate. Sensitive papers are missing and the victim had apparently received a warning/threat from Vienna before he was killed, but that too is missing. Lady Emily hies off to Vienna to try to find the person who sent the note, and it’s here the story might have first lost me, because it never seemed reasonable that Lady Emily had enough information to know where to start looking.

Lady Emily’s goals start merging/interfering with Colin’s assignment in Vienna and the two find themselves working together for the first time. But really, I think this entire plot construction was built around the romantic conflict of Lady Emily meeting one of Colin’s past um… dalliances. One who was rather disinclined to be pushed into the past. Ultimately, as I write this review, I think this is why the book wasn’t a 4-star or higher read for me: I’d bet a dollar that the author came up with the romantic conflict first and created a murder plot to justify it second.

Speaking of the murder plot – it was ultimately a very good one. I liked the way the author presented the pieces of the puzzle to both the reader and Lady Emily; I just wish it wasn’t so obfuscated by the shenanigans in Vienna.

I told myself I was going to take a break after this book and start reading some of the other books in the Pile, but when push came to shove last night, I picked up Tears of the Pearl and dove back into Colin and Lady Emily’s world. Guess I’m just not quite ready for a break.

A Poisoned Season (Lady Emily Mystery, #2)

A Poisoned Season
by Tasha Alexander
Rating: ★★★½
isbn: 9780061174148
Series: Lady Emily Mystery #2
Publication Date: January 1, 2007
Pages: 308
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mythology
Publisher: William Morrow

I thoroughly enjoyed this second outing of Lady Emily; I was sucked back into her society from the first page. No more guilt-ridden, moony angst! But it was not without its issues and shortcomings.

A Poisoned Season picks up where the last book And Only to Deceive leaves off – Emily has returned from Greece in time for the London Season but still chafes against the rules set out for polite society. There’s a pretender to the French throne in town, a cat burglar, and a murder – all contributing to the enlivenment of the season. In an attempt to help out her American friend Margaret, she unwittingly makes herself the focus of scandalous rumours concerning an illicit affair between herself and the Duke of Bainbridge. Colin is trying to stop a coup d’etat. Her best friend Ivy is having marital problems, and let’s not forget the wager between Lady Emily and Colin…

I think the author tried to weave too many threads into the story. Bainbridge is so prominent as to be considered a main character in the first half of the book – then he all but disappears without so much as a line of dialogue between himself and Emily. Perhaps we’ll see him again in a future book, but the reader isn’t given any indication of that. Also, there’s a growing animosity towards Lady Emily on the part of Robert’s boss, culminating with a nasty scene at Ivy’s ball – but it’s never explained. What was up with that?!?

Mostly, though, I just enjoyed the story and the mystery(ies). The murder mystery was exceptionally well done. I was totally bamboozled; talk about Machiavellian planning. The secondary mysteries were entertaining, but not overly impressive; the identity of one of the characters was evident from the first clue.

If I found Colin less than swoon-worthy in the first book, I was a true convert by the end of this one. He’s my idea of a romantic hero: confident enough of his own identity to be completely at ease with a strong, independent female. His gift at the end of the book was inspired for both it’s real value and its metaphorical one. If I didn’t like Lady Emily, he alone might be reason enough for me to keep reading.